Report: Cunningham Alone is to Blame for His CorruptionThe top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a summary of the panel’s probe into how Duke Cunningham used the panel’s staff and resources to forward his corrupt ways.
You can read the summary here.
The probe, ordered last December, found what looks like new dirt on former CIA #3 Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, who’s been drawn into the Cunningham investigation. But the report concluded that the panel itself was clear of wrongdoing in Cunningham’s case.
Indeed, one of Duke’s main bribers, Mitchell Wade, even tried to cozy up to staffers, but he kind of weirded them out, according to the five-page executive summary released by Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), the panel’s ranking member.
The report identified three troubling activities, and recommended they be referred to the Justice Department or national security agencies for further investigation:
- Former HPSCI staffer Brant “Nine Fingers” Bassett had a “close personal friendship” with Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the former CIA #3 man who quit the agency after the feds raided his house in a corruption investigation related to Cunningham. “During his time at HPSCI, Bassett and Foggo worked together to achieve certain objectives relating to the management of the CIA,” the summary reported:
Bassett introduced Foggo to key HPSCI members and staff, and Bassett and Foggo sought to motivate various HPSCI members to take desired actions by, among other things, providing them with gifts of “government trinkets” such as a carpet emblazoned with the words “Global War on Terror.” . . further inquiry is appropriate.
- The Justice Department probe into Foggo includes awards of several large CIA contracts to a company “managed by an individual” who was neither Wade nor Brent Wilkes, Cunningham’s other alleged briber. “Foggo introduced Bassett to this invididual in the spring of 2003… [the three men] also apparently had dinner together at the Capital Grille in June 2003,” the report stated. “[W]e believe that additional inquiry is warranted to determine whether either Bassett or anyone else at HPSCI facilitated or was involved in any of the contract awards in question.”
- “[W]e are aware of dealings that Cunningham had with certain foreign nationals, which we expect will be given careful scrutiny by appropriate law enforcement and national security agencies” for possible breaches of national security.